


Boldly Go to Sea

by doorstepdreams



Series: Missing Scenes [4]
Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-20
Updated: 2017-08-20
Packaged: 2018-12-17 22:03:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11860530
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/doorstepdreams/pseuds/doorstepdreams
Summary: shameless contrived pre-zimbits ficlet, testing out a different POVTitle from Adieu Sweet Lovely Nancy by Mick McAuley





	Boldly Go to Sea

 

_Late Sept 2014_

Bitty skipped up the Haus steps, phone clutched in one hand and still glowing with the words: _Bittle can you come give me hand?_

“Sure thing punkin. Whatcha need?”

Bitty bounced through the door and both his body and brain stalled at exactly the same time. Jack was hustling around his room in a mild panic, wearing nothing but his birthday suit. Bitty mechanically pushed the door closed behind him and just stared.

“I… shit… I’m meeting with a scout from Anaheim in twenty minutes and I can’t find my fucking belt, ah!” he exclaimed, tugging the offending article from underneath the duvet.

Bitty still hadn’t moved. He was desperately trying to stop his eyes tracking the swing and sway of… oh dear. Oh me oh _my._

Bitty cleared his throat unnecessarily. “Was that it or you need help with somethin’ else?”

Thank the Lord, Jack didn’t have time to look up and notice the gawping, and instead began tugging on a clean pair of boxers.

“Yeah, can you pick out something to go with these pants?”

He hitched a pair of charcoal trousers up over the thickly defined V of his hips and Bitty could finally resume movement.

“Sure thing! What’re we tryin’ to say with this look, exactly?”

He opened Jack’s wardrobe, already well aware of what he had to work with. It was sparsely filled with the only clothes Jack needed to hang up: exceptionally fancy name brands in neutral colors bought for him by his mom.

Bitty silently prayed that Jack would be trying to say ‘no’ to Anaheim. That was about as far away as you could get from Massachusetts.

“Eh, nothing that’s trying too hard?”  
He finished clasping the belt and Bitty had to swat down saying _You look pretty perfect just as you are, stud._ “They’re offering me a stupid amount of money but I don’t know how generous they’re gonna be about promotions, you know?”

Bitty nodded and selected a white Brioni shirt and thin red tie, holding them out to where Jack had stood up from pulling on a pair of dress socks.

“These but with your black cardy rather than the suit jacket. It looks like somethin’ you’d wear everyday and not like you picked it out specially. That tie on the white shirt’ll tell them that you’re perfectly happy being at Samwell and aren’t in a hurry to decide where you’re going after you graduate. Make ‘em sweat a little since you just know they’ll think you only came here to put off going back into the draft for a few years.”

Bitty beamed up at Jack’s awestruck expression.

“How the hell do you do that? And what am I going to do when you don’t live across the hall anymore?”

Bitty awkwardly slapped a hand against Jack’s right pectoral. “If you think you’re gonna get out of Skype sessions with me when you’re Mr. Fancypants NHL, then think again!”

Jack huffed a small laugh and reached past Bitty to the shoe rack in his wardrobe. The motion slid his entire naked torso against Bitty’s sleep shirt.

“No,” Bitty said simply and traded out the shoes with a black pair. Jack gave him a fond look and accepted the change.

Watching the boy fumble over his shirt buttons lasted only a few moments. They both laughed when Bitty took mercy on him and commandeered the shirt. Jack shook his head as he watched Bitty’s fingers neatly at work.

“Can you believe I’m still getting nervous before these things? I don’t even think I want to go to Anaheim.”

Bitty took Jack by the shoulders and guided him over to where he could stand on the armchair and get to work on Jack’s tie. Hiding his relief was a difficult thing. Pretending he cared more about Jack’s NHL career than his proximity to Bitty himself was even more difficult.

“I can’t say you’re gonna find much support in this house for you movin’ clean across the country, Jack,” his cheeks burned now that their faces were almost perfectly level. “But I just want you to know you’ve got four lifelong friends who’ll be cheering for you wherever you end up going.”

He could feel Jack watching him closely even if he couldn’t bring his eyes up to look. The whole Haus had been walking on eggshells around Bitty and Lardo but they couldn’t stop discussing graduation entirely. It made Bitty a bittersweet kind of content to see the same concerned look on Jack’s face that Shitty had for Lardo when the shadow of separation loomed too close to them all.

Bitty finished the tie and wobbled a little on the chair cushion, bracing his hands on Jack’s wide shoulders. He will not cry. He simply will not.

The finger on his nose touched the tip lightly, enough to get Bitty to look up. His eyes crossed a little and Jack smiled. He was so unbearably handsome with his fresh shave and cologne that Bitty felt like he could burst.

With Bitty still warm in his sleep clothes and that soft reassuring smile on Jack’s face, Bitty imagined that this is how it would feel to see him off in the morning before a roadie.

Darn it all. That was definitely a tear making its way down his cheek.

“Come on, Bits,” Jack said through a smile. “No need to start eulogizing me yet. I’ve got five more meetings this week and you’re gonna dry up completely if you cry every time.”

An arm slid underneath Bitty’s butt and he let his head rest against Jack’s as he was lowered down to the floor. Jack gave him a pat on the backside as Bitty snuffled into the sleeve of his robe, and drooped his way to the door.

“Post-mortem at Annie’s?”

Bitty thought he heard something a little shaky in Jack’s voice. When he turned back, Jack was putting on his cardigan and watching Bitty expectantly.

Bitty smiled small but sweet.

“Meet you there at 11!”

**Author's Note:**

> thank you to wrathofthestag for beta and guidance as always!
> 
> [on tumblr](https://jack-manpain-zimmermann.tumblr.com/post/164417525175/boldly-go-to-sea)


End file.
